Singlespeed & Fixed Gear"I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!"-- Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 - 16 August 1940)

I ride a single-speed cruiser. It is geared 42:21 or so, which I think is lower than most cruisers. It's definitely lower than most fixed-gear bikes (ie, 52 gear inches).

I find this gear ratio to be very handy on moderate hills. But it also means that on level ground, you're pedaling at the high range of your cadence (going 15-17 mph). In that case, the advantage to being able to coast is that you can pedal just three or four strokes, then coast for three or four & repeat. I could increase the gearing a lot where I could just continually pedal slowly under those conditions, but then I'd never make it up the hills (I'm old and heavy, not young and thin like most of these Fixed Gear guys, btw). So that's one advantage to coasting capability.

__________________
"be careful this rando stuff is addictive and dan's the 'pusher'."